What Beginning Guitar and Weight Lifting Have In Common (But really, a post for beginning guitarists)

Chances are good you’ve stumbled onto this page because you have some ambition leading toward the guitar that you’re wanting to explore further. Whether you’ve been playing for 20 years, or you just saw John Mayer’s “Where the Light Is” live DVD and it changed your life and made you say “Oh man I want to do that”…ultimately, it doesn’t matter. The point is that you’re interested in going deeper into something that has proved to be rewarding on so many levels for an innumerable population of guitar players.

For veteran guitarists, you may have hit a plateau years back in your skill development, and that’s okay. Hopefully, if you’re anything like many of us, you woke up and for some reason experienced that renewed passion for the instrument and are desperate and eager to get back into the saddle. The guitar, the music community, gigging, recording, and the life of the musician have that effect.

Wherever you’re at in your playing, the one question that is vital to achieving any further progress is this:

What do you want to achieve in your guitar playing?

Every student I take on must answer this question. Fortunately, there are no right or wrong answers, as long as there is an answer. “To become a better guitarist” is, I suppose an answer, but it’s so nebulous, so abstract that it could mean two weeks of practice and bam! You’re better, but simply “better” is not an definite destination point. It’s part of the journey, for sure, but not the destination.

It can be a loaded question, though, too. And that’s also okay. For beginners sometimes there’s the feeling of: “I don’t even know enough about the guitar to come up with a goal in my guitar playing!”

Which is an answer that is full of appreciated honesty. In these situations, I often ask students to keep the achievement question in the back of their mind as they go throughout their week. Eventually, he or she may happen across something musical (guitar related or not) that strikes a chord (pun not intended, but it definitely was low hanging fruit humor-wise). With most players there are a few key defining moments that motivated us to start playing at the beginning. For whatever reason, they acted as continued motivation to suffer through the frustration, physical discomfort, and confusion that often comes with starting something new.

What’s the point of identifying an anchor point of motivation?

It’s pretty simple. Learning to play the guitar isn’t that different from learning anything else in some respects. What separates learning to play guitar from any number of other activities is the deep personal significance for every monumental achievement. In addition, your achievements can be shared via performance, if you choose to pursue performance opportunities (more on this later, but suffice to say, gigging isn’t for everyone. Many people like to keep it quiet and personal, “playing out” may simply mean taking the guitar to the front porch). This possibility adds a whole new dimension to musical fulfillment that little is written about, even though we see it everywhere we go.

Within the world of weight lifting, for example, goal setting is vital for anyone truly wanting to make progress in their efforts. This approach is something that I believe the musical world would benefit greatly from, but unfortunately is often touted as new age, pop-psyche mumbo jumbo. An anchor point of motivation keeps the student engaged when the feelings of fun and excitement of playing for the sake of playing have started running low.

An example of an anchor point may be:

-The mental image of seeing yourself playing guitar on stage or in a studio

-An image (mental or physical) of one of those gritty-but-oh-so-cool photos of a basement full of gear, beer bottles, cables, and your band working on a project

-A chill-inducing song. We all have at least one of these.

-The idea of writing an album’s worth of songs.

-Dreaming of being able to play every song by Eddie van Halen, Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Stevie Ray, etc. (or anyone else for that matter!)

-Seeing an old, beaten up guitar that’s clearly been loved, cherished, and played every day for years. If you see one of these and think “that guitar is beautiful…I want one” then you’re well on your way.

-You feel that you sometimes lack the words to express feelings that you suspect music will allow you to express.

And Soooo… How Does This Help My Guitar Playing?

It’s not uncommon for people to feel embarrassed or sheepish if you try to get them to talk about what got them started playing guitar. I don’t like blanket statements, but I think every serious player has at least one of these. Personally, I don’t remember my original reasons for playing, but as time’s gone by I adopted new points of motivation.

These are important to identify because playing the guitar, albeit fun, rewarding, fulfilling on a multitude of levels, occasionally glamorous, impossibly cool, and generally beneficial… there will come a day where it feels like work. Figuring out that motivating concept, image, or idea keeps you on track and keeps you moving forward.

This kind of self awareness is what takes those of us who are not born with enormous amounts of natural talent into the arenas of people who were born with “it”. And even if you never arrive at that point or don’t even particularly care to, it ensures that you minimize moments of stagnation and complacency!